Thursday night in FEB action, MyGuide Amsterdam had a tough time in the Horstacker versus a rejuvenated Matrixx Magixx team, who had a good start and kept the pressure on the league leader, holding off a MyGuide 4th quarter rally and going on to win by the score of 87-81. Mtrixx led 25-11 at the end of the 1st quarter and 44-30 at the half and led by as much as 69-51 at the end of the 3rd quarter. Alhaji Mohammed (192-G-81, agency: Beo Basket, college: Louisville) had an impressive game, scoring 28 pts. including 5 three-pointers to lead Matrixx. Tyler Smith (203-F-80, agency: Players Group, college: Penn St.) added 23 pts. and Chris Copeland (203-F-84, agency: 540 Sports, college: Colorado) added 18 pts. and 13 rebounds. Mohammed Abukar (208-F-85, college: San Diego St.) led MyGuide with 18 pts. Matrixx are now 20-13 and 3rd in the FEB, while MyGuide drops its second in a row.

In Den Bosch, defending Dutch champions Eiffel Towers had the game in the hand from the 2nd quarter on, not letting up and winning convincingly 79-65.

On Friday night, Carife Ferrara defeated on the road Banco di Sardegna Sassari 91-73, enlarging to 3 wins the difference between its first place and all the other Lega 2 teams. With such an advantage and only seven games to play in regular season, it is very probable that Ferrara wil be directly promoted to Serie A. Scoring 21 points and dishing 5 assists on friday night, Andre Collins (183-G-82, college: Loyola, MD) showed to be back at his usual shape, and teh other top players of Carife, Harold Jamison (204-C-76, agency: Strategic Sports, college: Clemson) and Daniel Farabello (194-G-73), were very good they too, with 17 pts and 5 rebs and 14 pts and 4 assists, respectively. Trent Whiting (185-G-76, college: BYU) scored 26 points in losing effort for Sassari, but in our opinion this team can hope to enter in Serie A only via the playoff grid.
See complete boxscores at www.legaduebasket.it

One of he two Serie A games of yesterday sounds as a final verdict for Eldo Napoli, that could have ended its run to the playoff grid in consequence of the second fall in a row, this time at Cantu, where Tisettanta prevailed over Eldo 73-64. A bad start of Napoli (8-17 at the end of the first quarter) was the main factor in the loss, together with a poor shooting accuracy. Chris Monroe (191-G-81, college: George Washington) scored 19 points in losing effort, and only two other teammates, Matteo Malaventura (196-G-78) and Jumaine Jones (201-F-79, agency: Octagon, college: Georgia), ended the game in double digits, at 13. The best in Cantu was Herve Toure (202-F-82, agency: ACMT), who ended the game at 18 points, 10 rebounds and 3 assist, well help'ed by DaShaun Wood (180-G-85, college: Wright St.), who added 18 pts, 3 rebs and 4 assist. In the other game played on saturday, Siviglia Wear Teramo dominated Angelico Biella on the road, winning 100-98 a game in which Biella made a desperate comeback during the last part of the game, after falling down more than 20 points in the score. Roger Powell (198-F-83, agency: Interperformances, college: Illinois) was the game MVP. with 33 points and 13 rebounds, while Giuseppe Poeta (190-G-85) showed why he could wear a Team Italy shirt on next summer, with 22 points, 5 steals and 6 assits. The newly arrived Hassan Adams (193-G-84, agency: David Lee services, college: Arizona) added 17 points in Teramo, while Barry BJ Elder (193-G-82, college: Georgia Tech) and Brandon Hunter (201-F-80, agency: Priority Sports, college: Ohio) (19 pts each) led Biella in losing effort, with Valerio Spinelli (184-G-79) adding 17 point in the furious, unsuccesful last time comeback.
See complete boxscores at www.legabasket.it

Rytas overcome Zalgiris 91:79 (26:19, 13:23, 31:23, 21:14). This game was a chance for Rytas players, who don't play much, because some of the main players was resting tonight. Marijonas Petravicius and Matt Nielsen wasn't playing tonight, they are expected to return in the first part of April.
The first half was even, Rytas was leading, but Jonas Maciulis (200-G/F-85, agency: Interperformances) pulled his team forward and Zalgiris won the first half 42:39. The main action was in the final quater. Zalgiris was always behind by 2-4 points, but their attempts to obtain the lead was unsuccesful. Marko Popovic (185-G-82, college: S.Idaho JC) and DeJuan Collins (188-G-76, college: Tuskegee) missed their free throws, Hollis Price (186-G-79, college: Oklahoma) added a three pointer and there were no chances left for Zalgiris (87:78). Siemens Arena was celebrating, Rytas won 91:79.
Terrible game for Marcus Brown (192-G-74, agency: Higher Vision Sports, college: Murray St.), he scored 11 points, but hit only 2/11 field goals. Zalgiris won the board, but their accurateness was bad, 4/22 three pointers and 25/38 free throws. Jared Jordan (188-G-84, college: Marist) played 34 minutes and scored 11 points and 5 assists, Martynas Gecevicius (193-G-88) - 27 minutes and 19 points. The main playmaker Hollis Price played only 5 minutes, but he got 8 points.

Lietuvos Rytas won the BBL regural season, but this doesn't give any advantage, because Final Four will occure in Siauliai.

Lietuvos Rytas : Chuck Eidson (202-F-80, college: S.Carolina) 19 points+6 assists+4 reb., Martynas Gecevicius 19, Kenan Bajramovic (206-F-81, agency: Beo Basket) 13.
Zalgiris : Jonas Maciulis 14, DeJuan Collins 14, Damir Markota (209-C/F-85) 12+9 boards.

Pittsburgh upset Georgetown tonight 74-65 to win the Big East Championship. Pittsburgh outrebounded Georgetown 41-29 including getting 19 offensive rebounds while limiting Georgetown's three point shooting to 8-24 in the victory. The win exacted revenge for last years' 23 point loss to Georgetown in the tournament final. Pittsburgh was 22 of 44 from the free throw line as Georgetown repeatedly fouled from the three minute mark on to try to get back into the game. Sam Young (6'6''-F-85) scored 16 points for Pittsburgh and was named tournament MVP. Ronald Ramon scored 17 to lead the Panthers. The win was especially sweet for Pittsburgh as five of the Panthers come from the NYC metropolitan area. Roy Hibbert led Georgetown with 17 points while battling foul trouble. Pittsburgh boosted their seeding in the NCAA tourney with the win as Eurobasket projects a 5 seed for them. Georgetown may drop to a 3 seed with the loss. Pittsburgh moves to 26-9 on the season while Georgetown drops to 27-5.

The All-Tournament team besides Sam Young of Pittsburgh included Levance Fields of Pittsburgh, Joe Alexander of West Virginia, Jerel MacNeal of Marquette and Roy Hibbert and Jesse Sapp of Georgetown.